Police have released surveillance images of the man they suspect stabbed a tourist in the head last weekend in Midtown.
Connor Rasmussen, of Washington state, was out celebrating his recent engagement with friends on Saturday night—he had traveled to the city to propose to his girlfriend in Central Park. Around 1:45 a.m., police said, 23-year-old Rasmussen was stabbed in the back of the head by a man wielding a steak knife at the corner of 46th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.
"I never heard the guy, I never heard anything—next thing you know, I'm just getting hit," Rasmussen told CBS New York. He added that he locked eyes with the suspect before both he and the stabber ran in opposite directions. "As I'm running, I'm freaking out," Rasmussen said. "I pull my hand out and look—it's a freaking knife, like a steak knife in my hand that I just pulled from my head."
Rasmussen told ABC7 that he believed the assault may have been a robbery attempt—but his friend Ryan Asher, who witnessed the attack, told the Daily News that the assailant "didn't even reach for my friend's purse." In addition to stabbing Rasmussen in the head, the attacker attempted to punch one of his friends and left her with scratches on her face.
Both victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital after reporting the incident to police. Rasmussen got eight stitches, ABC7 reports, but did not sustain serious injuries. His grandmother Linda Colon told the News, "If it would have been an inch or two on either side, from what the doctors said, it would have killed him."
Rasmussen has since returned to Washington.
Police described the stabber as male, around 5'10" tall. He was last seen wearing a black skullcap, black sweatpants, black sneakers, and a black Nike hoodie with white stripes and "Jordan" written on the sleeve.
Surveillance footage recently released by the NYPD shows the suspect heading into the 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center subway station around 1:46 a.m. on Sunday.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577.
